Turducken details,Turducken rest of the gaps are stuffed, sometimes with a highly seasoned breadcrumb mixture or sausage meat, although some versions have a different stuffing for each bird. The result is a fairly solid layered poultry dish, suitable for cooking by braising, roasting, grilling, or barbecuing.

History

30 lb. roasted Turducken

Sausage-stuffed Turducken cut into quarters to show the internal layers

Roasts of nested birds or other animals have been documented for centuries. The Yorkshire Christmas pie, an English dish served in the 1700s, consists of five different birds either layered or nested, and baked in a standing crust.The pie was normally produced only by the wealthy.

In his 1807 Almanach des Gourmands, gastronomist Grimod de La Reynière presents his rôti sans pareil ("roast without equal") – a bustard stuffed with a turkey, a goose, a pheasant, a chicken, a duck, a guinea fowl, a teal, a woodcock, a partridge, a plover, a lapwing, a quail, a thrush, a lark, an ortolan bunting and a garden warbler – although he states that, since similar roasts were produced by ancient Romans, the rôti sans pareil was not entirely novel. The final bird is very small but large enough to hold just an olive; it also suggests that, unlike modern multi-bird roasts, there was no stuffing or other packing placed in between the birds. It appears to be illegal to make today as some of the species are endangered.

Claims that Cajun-creole fusion chef Paul Prudhomme created this dish as part of the festival Duvall Days in Duvall, Washington in 1983 are unverified. A November 2005 National Geographic article by Calvin Trillin traced the American origins of the dish to "Hebert's Specialty Meats" in Maurice, Louisiana, although readers immediately noted that the concept for the dish itself is centuries old. Hebert's has been commercially producing turduckens since 1985, when an unknown local farmer brought in his own birds and asked Hebert's to prepare them in that manner. The company prepares around 5,000 turduckens per week around Thanksgiving time.

Turducken is often associated with the "do-it-yourself" outdoor food culture also associated with barbecueing and shrimp boils, although some people now serve it in place of the traditional roasted turkey at the Thanksgiving meal. As their popularity has spread from Louisiana to the rest of the Deep South and beyond, they have become available through specialty stores in urban areas or by mail order.

The popularity of turducken is mostly limited to some parts of the United States and Canada.

Variations

In the United Kingdom, a turducken is a type of ballotine called a "three-bird roast" or a "royal roast".The Pure Meat Company offered a five-bird roast (a goose, a turkey, a chicken, a pheasant, and a pigeon, stuffed with sausage), described as a modern revival of the traditional Yorkshire Christmas pie, in 1989; and a three-bird roast (a duck stuffed with chicken stuffed with a pigeon, with sage and apple stuffing) in 1990. Multi-bird roasts are widely available.

One turducken alternative uses a goose instead of a turkey, resulting in a gooducken. Another variation is the "Turbaconducken" where the recipe includes a wrapping of bacon around the turkey.

Cultural references

John Madden, noted NFL analyst, popularized the turducken when on air during his announcing for CBS he presented a turducken to the viewers, then began carving it with his bare hands. Later he promoted it again on Fox by awarding a turducken to players on the winning team for the Thanksgiving Bowl. On the November 9, 2008 broadcast of NBC Sunday Night Football, Madden responded to a fan's sign reading "JOHN MADDEN, BRING BACK TURDUCKEN" by calling his fixation with turducken "a thing of the past," stating that he would return to a traditional turkey for successive Thanksgivings.

Turducken references are frequently made concerning non-food elements "stuffed" into others. On Comedy Central's The Daily Show, correspondent Aasif Mandvi suggested that the Kurds, Iraq and Turkey should form a single nation and call it Turducken.

Stephen Colbert claims that his Peabody Award is the "turducken" of awards, as it combines the best elements of several others.

Turduckens are referenced in the Clive Cussler novel Sacred Stone, and the novel The Compound, by S.A. Bodeen.

Turducken was the main course for Christmas dinner in The Dead Zone episode "A Very Dead Zone Christmas", originally aired December 2005 (season 4, episode 12).

(source:wikipedia)